The present invention relates to a new and distinct cultivar of Solenostemon plant botanically known as Solenostemon scutellarioides and hereinafter referred to by the cultivar name ‘Balcenna’.
The new cultivar originated in a controlled breeding program in Dulce Nombre de Cartago, Costa Rica during January 2004. The objective of the breeding program was the development of Solenostemon cultivars with unique foliage coloration and leaf shape, upright growth habit, and good sun tolerance.
The new Solenostemon cultivar is the result of cross-pollination. The female (seed) parent of the new cultivar is ‘Duck's Foot’, not patented, characterized by its medium scarlet-colored foliage and upright growth habit. The male (pollen) parent of the new cultivar is a Wizard™ mixed pollen source, not patented, having plants with green, red, magenta, yellow-green, and scarlet red-colored foliage and upright growth habit. The new cultivar was discovered and selected as a single flowering plant within the progeny of the above stated cross-pollination during November 2004 in a controlled environment at Dulce Nombre de Cartago, Costa Rica.
Asexual reproduction of the new cultivar by terminal stem cuttings since November 2004 at Dulce Nombre de Cartago, Costa Rica and West Chicago, Ill. has demonstrated that the new cultivar reproduces true to type with all of the characteristics, as herein described, firmly fixed and retained through successive generations of such asexual propagation.